The List: The Top 50 Barbecue Joints in Texas
Welcome to the golden age of Texas barbecue.
Texas barbecue, the classic version of which is found primarily in Central Texas and distinguished by its use of beef brisket and its indirect smoking method, is superior to all other regional varieties of barbecue. This is an incontrovertible fact. However, the state boasts tremendous variety of barbecue styles, from the cabrito pits of South Texas to the sweet tangy ribs of East Texas. Over the years, Texas Monthly has written about them all. In our first barbecue story, “The World’s Best Barbecue is in Taylor, Texas. Or is it Lockhart?” Griffin Smith Jr. wrote that, “at first blush, the East Texas chopped pork sandwich with hot sauce has little in common with the slab of Central Texas beef. . . . The emphasis in Central Texas is overwhelmingly on the meat itself—sauce, if available at all, is usually just a side dip.”
Central Texas barbecue owes its origins to the meat markets and grocery stores opened in the 1800s by German and Czech immigrants, who brought with them a style of smoking meat over wood with a simple preparation of salt and pepper. “Whatever fresh meat they couldn’t sell, they would smoke and sell as ‘barbecue,’” Katy Vine wrote in her 2012 story “Of Meat and Men.” “As demand grew, the markets evolved into barbecue joints, though the style of service didn’t change much. The meat was still sliced in front of the customer in line and served on butcher paper.”
The most famous of these meat markets became part of a canon—Louie Mueller’s in Taylor, Kreuz Market and Black’s in Lockhart, and City Market in Luling. The late 1990s brought on a subtle change to this lineup. After Kreuz Market’s owner, Edgar “Smitty” Schmidt died, the siblings who inherited the business parted ways. As a result, Kreuz Market moved to another part of town and the original building became Smitty’s. It made the “Best of the Best” barbecue in Texas Monthly’s 2003 round-up (the first in a series supervised by food editor Patricia Sharpe).
The front-runners had become so familiar that when the Texas Monthly staff hit the ground in 2008, for another “Top 50” review of barbecue joints, they were surprised by a completely unknown newcomer: Snow’s BBQ, in Lexington, “a small restaurant open only on Saturdays and only from eight in the morning until whenever the meat runs out, usually around noon.” A year later, in Austin, a little trailer called Franklin BBQ opened, causing such a fever that by the time it opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in the spring of 2011, people slept on the ground overnight for a spot in line.
A shift was underway, highlighted by Vine’s 2012 story: “Whereas the legendary spots of yore had been primarily rural, now the widespread hunger for sublimely smoked meat, coupled with the boon of instantaneous buzz and feedback, made it possible for urban upstarts to enter the scene.”
Welcome to the golden age of Texas barbecue.
Readers respond to the October 2016 issue.
On Saturdays Tootsie Tomanetz cooks barbecue the old-fashioned way for legions of loyal fans. That doesn’t mean she’ll ever give up her day job.
With beer, live country music, and, of course, Texas-style barbecue.
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We think that has something to do with Texas.
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And La Barbecue, another Austin establishment, also made food critic Alan Richman's list of the best new restaurants of the year.
With a little luck--and some perfectly smoked brisket--the 84th Legislature will correct a longstanding wrong and make barbecue the official state dish.
For more than a quarter century, Roy Perez has been tending the fires at Kreuz Market and posing for photos with barbecue aficionados. It’s given him a lot of time to think.
I was aghast when chili was first anointed our official state dish. More than 35 years later, my feelings about this greasy mush haven't changed.
Sifting through old Texas newspapers, I found the first mention of commercial smoked meat from the Brenham Weekly Banner, which announced that a Bastrop butcher "keeps on hand at his stall a ready stock of barbecued meats and cooked sausages."
Since 1960, A.N. Bewley Fabricators has been bending, slicing and welding steel for high-quality barbecue pits that can easily cost $20,000.
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Friends don't let friends slice with the grain.
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More than 75 songs to accompany you during a meaty quest.
Readers respond to the June issue.
How to "hold your meat" and make a brisket taste fresh for hours.
On Thursday, June 6, KLRU will air a television special entitled The Kings of BBQ: Barbecue Kuwait.The documentary details the experience of five BBQ pitmasters (Myron Mixon, Johnny Trigg, Jaime Geer, Nicole Davenport, and George Stone) and their trip to a military base in Kuwait to create a Southern-style
From packer cuts to Certified Angus Beef, all you wanted to know about that succulent, juicy, tender, and tasty brisket you tear through at your favorite barbecue joint.
Also, over at TMBBQ.com, Vaughn has a new review of Smitty's in Lockhart, perhaps the most surprising joint to not make the Top 50.
Bad news, Memphis: not only are your Grizzlies on the way to losing to the Spurs, but you still won't get to eat the world's best barbecue!
Our June issue, which comes out next week, will settle once and for all the question of Texas BBQ v. all other forms of BBQ.
Find out who made the cut. And which joint ranks number one.
Creating an edible logo.
Things have changed dramatically since we published our last list of the state’s top fifty barbecue joints, in 2008. Not only has there been an unprecedented flourishing of new joints (sixteen of the places on this year’s list were not open five years ago, including two of the top four), and
Possibly the tastiest one this magazine has ever created.
New Yorkers are cheering as our iconic yellow-labeled bock rams toward their city.
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Robert Sietsema, the Village Voice's food critic, thinks New York can now be considered a "'cue capital." Isn't that cute?
You can’t go home and tell your friends that you came to Central Texas and never ate any barbecue. It would be like going to SXSW and not listening to any music. But there are so many briskets and so little time! How do you sort it all out? No
Carolina pulled pork, Memphis dry rub, Kansas City ribs or Texas brisket? As if there's actually "debate." Video and highlights from Jake Silverstein's SXSW BBQ panel.
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He's back: John Mueller makes dramatic return to Central Texas barbecue scene with the John Mueller Meat Co. in East Austin.
Daniel Delaney is attempting to do world-class Texas brisket in New York. Our Daniel Vaughn thought he could pull it off, and now Wayne Mueller has agreed.
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Daniel Delaney, a Brooklyn-based blogger who professes a deep and profound respect for Texas barbecue, bought a 200-pound smoker and a truckload's worth of Texas post oak to start Brisket Lab in his home state.
Where there's smoke, there's non-traditional barbecue. Jim Shahin writes about Asian styles in New York City, "pulled squash" in Arizona, and cauliflower, artichokes, and quail in Texas.
Four highlights from "Texas Preserved," Foodways Texas' second annual symposium.
It may have rained where you live Tuesday, but the drought continues to impact everything from butterflies to barbecue and golf to drinking water.
The senior editor on writing about Aaron Franklin and John Mueller, eating brisket five days in a row, and mastering a barbecue pit.